Is Galen Rupp Planning to Run the Olympic Marathon Trials?

Olympic 10,000 silver medalist Galen Rupp’s possible participation in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials has become a realistic prospect with his decision to run a half marathon in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday.

Rupp’s agent, Ricky Simms, confirmed by email to Runner’s World on Monday that Rupp will be running the Foot Traffic Holiday Half Marathon.

“He’s run this distance in the past as part of his ongoing training and is looking forward to competing in his first road race in Portland,” Simms wrote. Simms did not reply to questions about whether Rupp is thinking about competing at the marathon trials in Los Angeles on February 13. Rupp’s coach, Alberto Salazar, did not respond to an email about Rupp’s racing plans.

Rupp would need to run 1:05:00 or faster for a half marathon to qualify for the marathon trials. A number of highly regarded athletes, including Diego Estrada and Sam Chelanga, have used this option to qualify.

Such a time should be more of a tempo effort than race for Rupp. In his one career half marathon, he was third in the 2011 NYC Half in 1:00:30, behind Mo Farah and Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia.

To count as a trials qualifier, times must be run on a USATF-certified course, and the event must be USATF-sanctioned. The Portland course is certified, but the event is not currently sanctioned. (The latter requirement has to do with liability, insurance, and record-keeping rather than course accuracy.) According to Gene Newman, chair of the USATF Road Running Technical Council, a sanction agreement between the race organization and USATF can be completed by the end of this week.

In recent winters, Rupp has been active on the indoor track circuit; in 2014, he set American records of 8:07:41 for two miles and 13:01.26 for 5,000. Outdoors, he remains America’s premier male distance runner. His U.S. 10,000 record of 26:44.36 is 15 seconds faster than any other American has run for the distance, and he’s been the national 10,000 champion a record seven straight times.

But internationally, he hasn’t duplicated his silver medal performance at the 2012 Olympics. In the 2013 world championships, he was fourth in the 10,000 and eighth in the 5,000, and in 2015, he was fifth in both races.

Such close-but-out-of-the-medals finishes appeared to frustrate him. He’ll be 30 when the Olympics are held next August. He might wonder if his medal chances are better in the marathon. With his edge on the rest of the Americans in the 10,000, he’d have ample time to recover from February’s marathon trials to compete in the track trials in June.

At the trials in Los Angeles, he’d face a field with only two runners who’ve broken 2:10 since 2012. One, Meb Keflezighi, is 40 years old. The other, Dathan Ritzenhein, is battling hip bursitis. Even in his debut, a top-three finish for Rupp is at least a solid possibility.

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